Early next week, the EcoHawks and Residential Services will be launching a pilot composting program at University Place Residence.
Signage and bins are being distributed to student apartments this week and green bins will be available outside University Place early next week.
Director of residential services Michael Belanger is optimistic that the program will succeed.
“I fully expect that it’s not a matter of whether we’ll do this or not, it’s a question of how quickly we can get the other residences … on board, all the staff trained, the proper equipment and everything in place to be able to proceed with this.”
Belanger explained that they wanted the trial to take place at a medium-sized building, and that
they will further expand the idea in the future.
Although a similar trial was launched in 2009, it did not follow through because of what Belanger refers to as a lack of communication.
“We needed to know about … a bunch of logistical things. You’ve got 3,000 kids in residence here and you really need to nail down exactly how it’s going to work.”
The change to composting will be an adjustment to students and staff.
“There’s always a bit of a learning curve to doing this, but in our case, because we’re not relying on volunteers – the program involves our staff, our students and our full-time paid custodians – we do think it will succeed and that we will move forward with it,” said Belanger.
He further commented on Laurier’s evolution in becoming a greener campus.
“All of us have an obligation or a duty to try and make the campus a little more green. [The composting program] is just a natural evolution of the next step to take to reduce the amount of garbage we produce overall.
“I think it’s in the university’s and the students’ best interest. You can’t pick up a newspaper where there isn’t some mention of either the environment or recycling or that sort of thing. We’d like to ensure that we continue to play our part in that evolution.”
